From Russia With Love...

a.k.a. Letters from Sis. Lynes in Russia

Letter #23: From the Mission Field in Russia

Subject: #23
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 21:08:26 +0600
From: Shirley Lynes <gma@jacklynes.com>
To: jlynes@jacklynes.com

Dear Everyone,
Another week has come and gone. The time seems to fly by. We just do the same things every week, and there isn't much difference between the weeks. We still go to Rosy every day of the week. It could be worse. It's not far to Rosy, and we don't get lost or have any troubles. We live in the better part of the city, and never have any trouble. I have seen some other parts of the city that I'm glad we don't live in  The people in our dom area seem to have accepted us. They sometimes speak to us first! That's a real break-through! And they don't seem afraid of us when we look at their babies. We just want to see the babies; we are no danger to them at all. We don't even try to touch them! The babies are so beautiful, and we are so far from our grandchildren and great grandchildren that we just like to see them. Sometimes it is the highlight of our day! There is a park that we walk home through every day. The name of the park is Ploshad Oboroney, or translated it means the Square of Defense. There is a nice area where they sometimes have public gatherings. Yesterday when we walked home through the park there was what looked to be a dance club performing. People were dancing and having a good time. We watched for a little while. It seemed to be a nice way to spend a Friday night. Anyone who wanted to could dance with them. We watched as they did the cha cha, polka, waltz, and another one we weren't familiar with. Almost like a small town party. Today was the first day of school for the children here. Yes, on a Saturday. The kids here go to school six days a week. Now, see, you young ones have something else to be thankful for!!! When we left home to go to Rosy this morning, (there is a school right in our complex) they had the children standing outside and were addressing them with a loud speaker. Of course, I don't know what they were saying, but since they weren't talking to me, it didn't matter anyway! Sergei II said it is a special day called the Day of Learning. Makes as much sense as Labor Day, when nobody works! All the children we saw all day were dressed in their Sunday best! We went to Baskins Robbins this afternoon, and it was crowded with parents and children celebrating going back to school! The kids seemed excited to be going back to school. Interesting. Sergei II's wife is a high school history teacher. They have a baby who is about 13 months old. Sergei's wife gets paid to stay home and take care of the baby for 18 months. She can continue to stay at home for another 18 months, without pay, but this time will be counted toward retirement. She is planning to take the entire 3 years. That's certainly different from home. I have a young man (I'd say somewhere in his 20's) in my class named Michael. He is a good looking, very nice young man with a great sense of humor. I mentioned that a lot of people want to read my family letters because they don't know anything about Russia and Russians, and that you all want to know about them. I told him I was going to write about him today, and he couldn't believe it. So there it is! All of the people in the classes are so eager to learn. I tell them I'm so impressed with their progress in English, because I'm not making much progress in Russian. Russian is a very difficult language. Sis. Jenkins is teaching some children as young as 5 or 6, and I have one lady who is 70 years old. It is very interesting to talk to these people and try to figure out why English is so important to them. They say that English will be the language of the world, and they want a head start! These people have survived under some of the most disheartening conditions. But they still have a sense of humor, and the most beautiful smiles. They have very beautiful eyes, too. I've told them that Americans and Russians have so much in common. Much more than you would think. And they look just like us, with the same hopes and dreams we have. I don't think they are so worried about Americans anymore. They are more concerned about their neighbor to the south, China. They say China needs more land for all their people. They told me how many people China has, but of course, I can't remember the number. I just remember that it was an enormous amount. And they really don't have much in common with the Chinese. Russians and Americans really are so much alike. They even have "sayings" quite similar. I'll start to explainsomething, and they will say,  "yes, yes, we have the same expressionhere, too." The other day,  Sergei II used an expression: "She stepped on the same rake twice." Even though I hadn't heard that one, I knew exactly what he meant. If you don't understand it, write me and I will explain it to you! There is a really big Reenock on the other side of town that has just about everything. I've been told to go there to look for a winter coat. At the same time I'm told to go there, I'm also told to be very, very careful with my money there, as it is a dangerous place with many pickpockets. That is where Sergei's wife was this week, when someone took 500 rubles out of her purse. She didn't know when it happened. She just noticed that her purse was open. Sometimes, I'm told, that they just cut your bag open and take what they want, and you don't even know it. And they don't use a knife to cut with. They take a coin and fi e it down until it has a very sharp edge. That's what they use. If a policeman stops them, they aren't carrying any evidence! It also, apparently, isn't forbidden to be a policeman and drink on duty! I don't know what the laws are on drunk driving. Anyway, I'm not going to that Reenock. And I'm very careful about my money and my purse. Today I was wearing my purse under my coat. So I look a little more lumpy than usual!! Big deal!! Did I tell you that, until Communism fell, Yekaterinburg was a "closed" city? That means that no foreigner was allowed in this city. At all. And planes still do not fly over Yekat. The only plane I have seen over this city was a biplane that was flying around one morning. I felt like I had stepped back in time. Some of you may not even know what a biplane is. Go look it up! Another thing I want to tell you is don't take fast food for granted. It is so nice, if you find yourself hungry, to just pull into one of the fast food places and get something to eat. We can't do that here. We aren't allowed to eat just any place. And don't take a safe water supply for granted, either. We have a three stage filter system on the faucet in the kitchen. That means, no brushing teeth with the water in the bathroom. And the hot water smells so bad right now that you hate to take a shower or wash your face in it. And it has so much iron (from the iron pipes they use) that my wash cloths are looking awful. My white clothes are beginning to look a little less than white, but not as bad as the wash cloths. We don't have a filtering system at Rosy, so that means that we have to carry drinking water every day. Even water gets heavy when you carry it very far! I plan on asking Pres. Hall why we can't have a filter system at Rosy. Sis. Jenkins and I try to drink a lot of water every day, and a filter system there would make our lives so much easier. I'll let you know why we can't have it! Sometimes the elders come into Rosy after the long bus ride from Chelyabinsk, and need water. Sometimes it is the end of the month, and they don't have enough money to buy a bottle of water or a soda. Oh, by the way, a lot of Russians like water with carbonation. I got a bottle by mistake one day, and couldn't drink it. Without some kind of flavoring, it just tastes salty. But they seem to love it. The people in my class told me I should boil the water, even after filtering it. I hope that's not necessary, because I've been drinking filtered water since I got here, and so far I'm all right. Congratulations are in order for David and Margie. He has sent me some pictures of the kids with little Lauren. They looked so sweet. Little Chase is sitting there with his little hands out, wanting to hold Lauren. It is just so precious. That's about all the ramblings for this week. I hope you are all reading your scriptures. You didn't think I could write a letter without a little preaching, now did you????? You know that our religion hinges on the Book of Mormon. If it is true (and it is!!) then the church is true. If it isn't true, then the church isn't true. You all know it is true, and that the church is true. You need to study the Book of Mormon so that any time you need to defend the church or the Book of Mormon, you will know what to say. If you have put informationinto your brain, then the Holy Ghost will have something to work with! If you don't put the information in, it leaves Him very little to work with. Make His job easier!!! Thanks to all who found time to write this week. It really makes my day to hear from you. I love you all and pray for all of you every day. Please return the favor! Until next week. I'll keep my eyes open for anything unusual to write to you about.

Love,
Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Shirley, Sis. Lynes, Aunt Shirley, sister, cousin, friend, acquaintance, babushka (with an umbrella, the weapon of choice of all babushkas!!!!) (Choose one)